Hey, ya'll. I have a problem and need some advice, please. I had a hen sitting on a clutch of eggs in the corner of my barn. I didn't know she was sitting on eggs until yesterday when my wife found a few hatched chicks running around. I would have left her alone, but she was in a really bad spot. We've had a TON of rain down here and the back of my barn floods. The goats also get in there and are likely to step on the hen or the chicks. Four chicks had already been killed, so I had to move the rest of them to a better spot. I moved the three live chicks to a small coop on the other side of my barn, and the mother hen followed them. Good for the newly-hatched chicks, bad for the remaining eggs she was still sitting on. I moved the eggs (4) to the little coop with the other chicks and the hen in hopes that she would get back on them, but no such luck. She has completely abandoned them. She sits on the chicks, but stayed off of the eggs over night and through the morning. I was thinking about just getting rid of the eggs this afternoon when I saw that two if them had pipped. One got its beak out and died, the other has its beak out, but has not made any progress in several hours. I don't have an incubator or a brooder, but I brought the last three eggs (including the live one that has pipped) into my bathroom and made a nest of towels in my sink. I put a heat lamp on them to keep them warm, and loosely wrapped them with wet paper towels to keep the humidity up. What else can I do to save this chick?
Odds are, they will not make it. Sometimes a mother hen will leave a nest when she knows there is something wrong with the chicks in the shell. If the other chicks were out and running around, then they hatched at least 24 hours earlier. She hatched 7 chicks already... You could try to help the chick out that has pipped. Take the egg to the bathroom AFTER you have ran warm water long enough to get moisture and heat in the room. Gently peel the shell off the chick. Keep dipping you finger in warm water and rub the membrane with the water. What you are trying to do is get the shell off the chick without having the membrane dry on the chick.... You will remove the membrane after you get enough of the shell off. You are helping the chick hatch. It will need to go under the heat lamp immediately. Cold will kill a chick quick.
